It starts at the base of your neck.
A small shiver at first, a tingle, and it travels up and down and spreads across your shoulders like a fire.

And then your pulse quickens.
Your hands begin to get sweaty and your mouth dries out, yet still you push your fist toward third gear, step on the slender pedal under your foot and there you are, between speed and sound, traveling at a force of 505 horsepower with a ribbon of torque that runs through your soul and shakes your senses like a rag doll.

You are driving a 2006 Chevrolet Corvette Z06. Or is it driving you? We’re still not too sure, though we can tell you that it’s clearly the Autobytel Editors’ Choice for the Best New Sports Car of 2006. Priced tens of thousands of dollars less than its real competitors – vehicles such as the Porsche 911, the Dodge Viper and the Ford GT – while often beating them at the track. If you doubt it, just ask that snake what it’s like to get road-killed by a $65,000 common-man sports car. Though the price may be within reach for a hard workin’ dude, there’s nothing common about an engine that takes it’s place in Corvette lore as the greatest engine ever engineered. The 7.0-liter V8, with all its 505-horsepower glory, overcomes an interior with a few chintzy bits. And GM put the right type of brakes on their ultimate ‘Vette: ABS with vented discs. Plus, there’s an Active Handling Vehicle Stability Control System to save your butt when you goose the throttle a little too much exiting a turn.

But back to that powertrain. That’s what you want to read about. The standard six-speed manual transmission, while adept at managing streams of power and the monster motor’s 470 lb.-ft. of torque, can be a little squirrelly when you’re trying to go as fast as you can, as straight as you can. When the road curves, however, the sweet surprise is that this Z06, even with all that rear-drive power, is a capable handler with balanced steering that fluently communicates the surface of the road. Best of all, the Z06’s power is never far away, and all it takes is a blip of the throttle and you’re off. In the real world of red lights and merging lanes, some claim that this is a sports car that can handle the daily commute, but thirty minutes in traffic told us a different tale. Driving this beast as a commuter would get onerous, though certainly not as much as, say, the Viper.

But so what if the 2006 Corvette Z06 doesn’t do the bumper dance well. That’s not what it’s made for, clearly. This is a great performance machine – and a terrific value. And when was the last time something came around that gave you both – and was an American automotive icon? – Brian Chee